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THE    COUNTRY   CHURCH 


9      »     »     » 


Volume   3 


43O.301 


v.  3 


Federal  oouncil  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  What  every  church  should  know  about 
its  community, 

General  Association  of  Congregational  Churches 
of  Massachusetts.  Advance  reports  of  various 
committees,  1908  and  1909 

McElfresh,  F.  The  country  Sunday  school 

MclTutt,  M.  B.  Modern  methods  in  the  country  church 

MclTutt ,  M.  B.  A  post-graduate  school  with  a  purpose 

Massachusetts  Federation  of  Churches.  Quarterly 
"bulletin*  Facts  and  factors.  October  1910 
"The  part  of  the  church  in  rural  progress  as 
discussed  at  the  Amherst  Conference." 

Root,  E.  T.  State  federations 

Taft,  A.  B.  The  mistress  of  the  rural  manse 

Taf t ,  A.  B.  The  tent  mission 

Taylor,  G,   Basis  for  social  evangelism  with  rural 
applications 

Wells,  G.  F»  An  answer  to  the  New  England  country 
church  question. 

Wells,  G.  F.  What  our  country  churches  need 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  church  and  the  transient 

Wilson,  W.  H.  Conservation  of  boys 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  country  church 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  country  church  program 

Wilson,  W.  H.  Don't  breathe  on  the  thermometer 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  farmers*  church  and  the  farmers' 
iS  college 

OS 

•  • 

co  Wilson,  W.  IT.  Getting  the  worker  to  church 

Q_ 

ui 

CO 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  Member  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/mistressofruralm03taft 


Wilson,  W.  H.  The  girl  on  the  farm 

Wilson,  W.  H.  How  to  manage  a  country  life 

institute 

Wilson,  W.  II*  "Marrying  the  land." 

Wilson,  W.  H.  No  need  to  "be  poor  in  the  country 

Wilson,  W.  H.  Synod's  opportunity 

Wilson,  W.  H.  What  limits  the  rural  Evangel 


»49993S4 


The  church  and  country  life.  Pamphlet  issued 
hy  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church. 


Department  of  Church  and  Country  Life,  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  156  Fifth 
Avenue,  New  York. 


(%  MlBttMB  of  X\\t 

Sural  Mwxb? 

lg  Anna  1.  ©aft 


IN  the  change  in  modern  conditions  the  min- 
ister has  gradually  slipped  from  the  pedes- 
tal which  was  his  customary  location  a  cen- 
tury ago  to  the  more  noble  service  of  a  brother 
to  his  fellow  men.  The  children  no  longer 
scamper  away  in  awe  when  the  parson  ap- 
proaches the  front  door.  But  there  is  one 
position  of  dignity  and  usefulness  which  still 
holds  its  old  place  among  changing  conditions 
at  the  present  time-^that  is,  the  unquestion- 
able leadership  of  the  minister's  wife  in  the 
country  community. 

Mistresses  of  the  rural  manse,  although  of 
varied  type,  have  much  in  common.  As  an 
old  man  wisely  remarked,  "The  minister 
always  seems  to  secure  for  his  wife  the  very 
best  woman  in  the  country."  Often  she  is  a 
college  graduate,  frequently  she  has  beauty 
and  personal  charm,  but,  above  all,  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases,  she  has  a  peculiar  devotion  to 
her  husband's  work  and  more  successfully 
shares  his  life  than  the  wife  of  the  average 
man.  If  ever  the  history  of  the  builders  of 
country  communities  in  America  is  recorded 
there  will  be  written  large  two  types  of 
women ;  the  rural  school  teacher  and  the  wife 
of  the  country  minister. 


I  know  one  woman  who  has  served  small 
country  communities  with  a  vision  and  devo- 
tion it  would  be  hard  to  equal.  By  far  the 
superior  of  her  husband  in  ability  and  intel- 
lect, her  life  as  a  minister's  wife  for  over 
twenty-five  years  had  been  spent  in  remote 
country  sections,  with  never  a  family  income 
to  exceed  six  hundred  dollars  a  year.  She 
was  the  bulwark  of  her  husband  and  the  sym- 
pathetic adviser  of  two-thirds  of  the  parish. 
She  was  not  only  a  college  graduate,  but  a 
skilled  musician,  a  woman  who  would  have 
graced  any  cultured  circle,  and  whose  heart 
hunger  for  congenial  companionship  was  one 
of  the  most  pathetic  experiences  I  have  ever 
known.  All  that  saved  her  from  insanity  was 
the  very  real  devotion  of  her  husband  and  the 
service  she  constantly  rendered  to  an  ever 
new  parish,  as  the  limitations  of  her  husband's 
ability  necessitated  constant  moving.  In  spite 
of  failure  which  seemed  to  be  written  large  in 
his  life,  because  of  her  help  there  was  always 
left  in  every  parish  a  wholesome  and  immortal 
influence  for  good. 

I  recall  with  loving  memory  another  type 
of  a  country  pastor's  wife,  a  woman  large 
hearted,  perfectly  healthy,  and  absolutely 
wholesome,  having  a  very  pronounced  and 
natural  distaste  for  the  conventional  round 
of  a  minister's  wife's  duties,  as  viewed  by  the 
church.  She  never  could  speak  in  public,  abso- 
lutely refused  to  be  President  of  the  Ladies' 
Aid  Society,  and  always  felt  that  she  held 
her  husband  back  from  his  largest  usefulness 
because  she  was  so  poorly  fitted  for  the 
spectacular  work  of  the  church  life,  supposed 
to  be  her  inherited  share.  Yet  I  found  that 
this  natural  mother  was  the  beloved  saint  of 
every  poor  family  and  whenever  sickness  and 
sorrow  came  into  a  home  in  all  that  large 
scattered  country  parish  before  the  doctor 
was  sent  for,  the  minister's  wife  was  there, 
and  many  a  new  life  has  been  ushered  into 
this  world  with  no  other  aid  but  that  of 
this    noble,    warm    hearted    woman.      By    the 


sedate  and  orthodox  church  people  she  was 
sometimes  misunderstood  and  criticized,  but 
never  by  the  poor.  It  was  her  healthy,  whole- 
some, humorous  sympathy  that  tided  many 
a  family  over  a  tragic  crisis.  Her  husband 
could  bring  a  dozen  people  into  his  home 
for  dinner  and  be  perfectly  sure  of  a  hos- 
pitable welcome  and  an  adequate  meal.  He 
himself  reached  a  place  of  distinction  largely 
because  his  home  life  was  so  sympathetically 
and  sanely  planned  that  he  was  left  free  to 
make  the  most  of  his  own  fine  ability. 

In   another  country   parish  the  mistress    of 
the  rural  manse  was  not  only  a  college  gradu- 
ate, but  a  woman  who  had  been  a  successful 
teacher  in   one   of  the  higher   institutions   of 
learning.     Having  a  daughter  who  needed  an 
education,     this     woman     supplemented     her 
husband's  slender  income  by  teaching  the  little 
rural  school  that  for  once  in  its  history,  and 
only  once,  had  a  thoroughly  excellent  teacher. 
Of   course  the  community  did  not  appreciate 
it,  and  I  vividly  recall  the  scandalized  parents 
who   heartily    objected    to    the   time   given   to 
nature    study.      The    feeling    of    another    de- 
nomination in  the  community  was  so  intense 
that  after  a  couple  of  years  the  minister's  wife 
gave  up  that  effort.     The  interesting  feature 
was  the  development  of  the  children   during 
that  time  :  both  morals  and  manners  underwent 
an  astonishing  change  and  an  interest  in  the 
country  child's  natural  birthright  had  come  to 
be  cherished  by  many  of  the  boys  and  girls.     I 
remember  one  striking  case  in  this  connection. 
I  met  one  day  on  the  street  a  woman  of  the 
lowest  type  in  the  community,  who  had  borne 
an  exceedingly  bad  reputation  in  her  younger 
days,    and    who    was    struggling    for    respect- 
ability.    In  her  arms  she  carried  a  bunch  of 
yellow  ladies'    slippers,   very  rare   in   that   lo- 
cality.    I  stopped  and  asked  her  about  them, 
and  she  told  me  that  her  daughter  Lucy  had 
come  to  be  so  crazy  about  flowers  that  every 
Sunday  she  made  her  mother  tramp  back  into 
the  woods  with  her,   hunting   for  new   speci- 


mens  to  take  to  the  teacher.  I  have  never 
seen  this  woman  so  tender  and  so  human  as 
she  was  that  day. 

One  young  college  graduate,  going  into  a 
country  town  with  her  husband  for  his  first 
pastorate,  remarked  to  a  deacon's  wife  that 
she  really  did  not  know  how  to  be  a  minister's 
wife,  and  this  bright  little  old  lady  replied, 
out  of  her  years  of  church  experience,  "Don't 
you  be  troubled,  my  Dear.  There  is  not  a 
woman  in  the  church  who  cannot  tell  you 
how.'; 

This  same  young  woman  after  a  few  years 
of  successful  experience  passed  on  the  sug- 
gestion that  there  were  only  two  fundamental 
needs  in  being  a  successful  minister's  wife : 
the  first  was  to  know  how  to  treat  your  hus- 
band on  a  blue  Monday  and  the  second  to 
appear  to  take  all  the  advice  that  is  given  you. 

In  this  as  in  other  fields  of  service  there  is 
the  pathetic  story  of  the  woman  who  failed, 
but  the  astonishing  part  is  the  tremendous 
successes  that  have  been  made  against  over- 
whelming odds.  The  country  pastor's  wife 
usually  has  every  possible  handicap  in  her 
struggle.  She  has  a  financial  problem  to  meet 
the  solution  of  which  involves  a  miracle.  She 
has  the  least  of  outside  inspiration  and  the 
maximum  of  work,  and  yet  with  all  this  against 
her,  nine  times  out  of  ten  if  her  husband 
succeeds  in  his  parish,  it  is  by  her  ability 
as  much  as  his  own. 


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